Category: NASA

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket are positioned at the company’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of the Demo-1 flight test targeted for January 17, 2019.

On Dec. 18, Vice President Mike Pence had the opportunity to tour the hangar and see the launch hardware up close.

The Demo-1 flight test is the precursor to the company’s Demo-2 flight test, which will fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Demo-2 is targeted for June 2019.

NASA and our partners have been busy this year manufacturing flight hardware, testing their systems and preparing for flight tests. Our nine U.S. crew members have also participated in spacecraft system testing checkouts, spacesuit fit checks and launch simulations.

The first stage of the rocket that will launch Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station on the company’s uncrewed Orbital Flight Test has arrived in Cape Canaveral, Florida, completing delivery of all hardware for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket.

The Atlas V first stage booster rolled off of the Mariner cargo vessel on Dec. 7 at the Cape Canaveral wharf for the short drive to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center for receiving inspections and checkout.

Mariner is the ship that ULA uses to transport rocket segments, or stages, from the company’s manufacturing plant in Decatur, Alabama to the launch site in Florida. The Atlas V stage departed the factory Nov. 28 for the journey of nearly 2,000 miles.

Early in 2019, the stage will move further north to the Vertical Integration Facility to be raised on the mobile launch platform. The twin solid rocket boosters will be mounted to the bottom of the first stage. Then, the top of the rocket stack, which consists of the interstage, Centaur upper stage and payload adapter, will be hoisted into position.

This delivery means all of the hardware that ULA needs to launch the first Boeing Starliner has been received at the launch site for final integration.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is working with Boeing and SpaceX to return human spaceflight launch capability to the United States. Following Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test in March 2019, the Starliner will launch on the Atlas V rocket with astronauts aboard for a Crew Flight Test to the space station targeting August 2019. Boeing also will fly a pad abort test in between the uncrewed and crew test missions.

NASA and SpaceX have agreed to move the target launch date of the uncrewed Demo-1 flight test to the International Space Station. SpaceX coordinated with the Eastern Range for a launch on Thursday, Jan 17. This adjustment allows the return of the Dragon spacecraft from the company’s 16th commercial resupply services mission. SpaceX’s Demo-1 will provide key data associated with the ground, integrated rocket and spacecraft, and autonomous docking systems, and the landing profile ahead of the company’s flight test with astronauts, known as Demo-2.

“We still have more work to do as the certification process, hardware development and readiness reviews continue,” said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “The key readiness reviews along with NASA’s continued analysis of hardware and software testing and certification data must be closed out prior to launch. The upcoming steps before the test missions are critical, and their importance can’t be understated. We are not driven by dates, but by data. Ultimately, we’ll fly SpaceX Demo-1 at the right time, so we get the right data back to support the in-flight abort test and the next test flight when our astronauts are aboard. However, the fact we’re coordinating target dates with the Eastern Range is a great example of the real progress we’re making with commercial crew and how close we are to actually flying American spacecraft and rockets from American soil again.”

Inside the Boeing Mission Control Center at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., launch control teams for the CST-100 Starliner rehearse a fully integrated prelaunch simulation of the spacecraft’s upcoming Orbital Flight Test. Boeing Spacecraft Launch Conductor Louis Atchison speaks on console to the Mission Management Team as the countdown in the launch simulation progresses.

Boeing, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and NASA completed an integrated rehearsal of prelaunch procedures for Boeing’s first uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket for commercial crew missions to the International Space Station. The simulation, conducted on Nov. 7, focused on launch procedures beginning at five hours before launch, and continuing through a simulated scrub before liftoff.

Inside the White Flight Control Room in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Boeing’s Flight Control Team rehearses prelaunch procedures for the company’s Orbital Flight Test of Starliner.

The rehearsal consisted of launch teams participating from Boeing and NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Johnson Space Center in Houston. It incorporated voice communications, pad closeout events, polling for tanking, or fueling, readiness, and discussions about conditions, including flight hardware and weather.

Boeing’s Pad Team Lead, Melanie Weber, performs simulated prelaunch operations inside the Boeing Mockup Trainer for the Starliner located in Houston. As launch control teams from NASA, Boeing and ULA participate in a prelaunch rehearsal for the Starliner’s upcoming Orbital Flight Test, Weber practices her launch day pad operations from inside the trainer.

Prelaunch anomalies were introduced into the rehearsal to provide opportunities for the teams to execute their resolution process. A scrub was called during the countdown rehearsal, allowing participants to test procedures for a delay and a decision to de-tank and prepare for a launch attempt the next day.

Boeing’s first uncrewed test flight, known as Orbital Flight Test (OFT), is slated for launch aboard an Atlas V rocket in March 2019. This will be the first flight of the Starliner, and it is a major step toward demonstrating that the spacecraft is ready to begin carrying astronauts to the space station.

Members of NASA’s launch support team gather in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. to rehearse prelaunch operations for the Orbital Flight Test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The EOC is where directors for medical triage and launch rescue will execute real-time responses in the unlikely event of an emergency on launch day.

Boeing is manufacturing three Starliner spacecraft in collaboration with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Starliner is designed to be reused up to 10 times.

Astronauts slated to fly on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner for its upcoming Crew Flight Test recently toured two spacecraft testing facilities in southern California. NASA astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Mann, and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, met with employees who conduct the structural and environmental testing on the spacecraft built to ferry them to the International Space Station from U.S. soil.

NASA astronaut Eric Boe in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Upcoming environmental qualification testing is a major milestone on the road to launch. Performed at the El Segundo, Calif. test facility, it ensures that the CST-100 Starliner, designed and built in Florida, can withstand the extreme environments of space. Likewise, structural testing conducted in Huntington Beach verifies that the vehicle hardware is adequately built to withstand the pressures and load dynamics during flight.

Boeing test teams will put the spacecraft through several assessments including thermal vacuum testing which simulates hot and cold temperature swings the vehicle experiences on orbit. They’ll also perform acoustic testing, meant to safely shake the capsule to ensure it’s been properly built, and electromagnetic testing to see whether the frequencies expected in space would cause any dangerous interference.

The Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) that will attach Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to an Atlas V rocket for an uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station arrived at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Nov. 12, after traveling by ship nearly 2,000 miles from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) factory in Decatur, Ala.

Technicians unloaded the elements and they were transported for the LVA to begin integrated operations with the rocket’s Centaur upper stage.

The LVA is the specially-designed structure that will be fitted to the top of Centaur. It will soon be attached to the Centaur during pre-launch stacking operations and eventually support the Starliner spacecraft during launch of Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test (OFT), targeted for March 2019.

The LVA is seen here readied for shipping from Decatur. Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Also part of the LVA is the aeroskirt, which ULA designed in collaboration with Boeing and NASA for added aerodynamic stability during flight. This metallic orthogrid structure will smooth the air flow over the Starliner-Atlas V vehicle, and will separate from the vehicle after the first stage of flight during normal operations. The aeroskirt also has provisions for venting in the unlikely event the Starliner abort engines are fired.

OFT is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to return human spaceflight launch capability to the U.S. Following the uncrewed flight test, Boeing will launch its Crew Flight Test, which will carry two NASA astronauts and one Boeing astronaut to the International Space Station.

When astronauts splash down into the ocean after their journey to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, recovery teams must be able to transport them to land quickly. In the unlikely event of an astronaut medical emergency, SpaceX has outfitted its recovery ship, GO Searcher, with a medical treatment facility and a helipad in the center of the vessel.

Recently the company completed helicopter landing and patient loading rehearsals on the ship, practicing how the helicopter will pick up astronauts and fly them to a nearby hospital.

The aircraft will also serve to carry doctors and paramedics to care for the astronauts. This will allow the SpaceX medical team to provide the best possible care to astronauts on the ship, in-flight, and get them safely to a hospital.

In a normal scenario, Crew Dragon will splash down off of Florida’s eastern coast. GO Searcher is equipped with a crane to lift the capsule out of the water and onto the main deck of the ship. NASA and SpaceX doctors will work together to evaluate the crew onboard the vessel. From there, GO Searcher will head for Cape Canaveral, Florida, where SpaceX teams will take the astronauts to a nearby airport for transport back to Houston.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is working with Boeing and SpaceX to begin launching astronauts from American soil for the first time since 2011. The goal of the program is safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States. Commercial transportation to and from the space station will enable expanded station use, additional research time and broader opportunities of discovery aboard the orbiting laboratory.

NASA and the Department of Defense Human Space Flight Support (HSFS) Office have a long history in preparing for human spaceflight missions. As NASA’s Commercial Crew Program prepares to begin launching astronauts once again from American soil, it is vital teams prepare for launch day operations, including possible but unlikely emergency scenarios, and simulations are key to getting teams as ready as possible.

Today, teams from NASA, HSFS and SpaceX are conducting a joint medical triage and medical evacuation (medevac) training exercise at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the second of two emergency medical services simulations to be performed before commercial crew flight tests, which are scheduled for 2019. The first exercise was conducted at Space Launch Complex 41 and integrated teams from NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance.

“In the business of human spaceflight, we go to great lengths to design away or to control all the known hazards,” said Steve Payne, NASA Simulation Test Director and CCP Launch Integrator. “However, when the unexpected happens, we must be ready to respond. We develop and practice our procedures to handle the worst possible scenarios on launch day, but we hope we never have to use them. NASA is working closely with both our commercial partners and the Department of Defense to do everything possible to keep our flight crews and ground teams safe.”

For today’s exercise, teams are practicing a worst-case scenario, pad emergency and subsequent hypergolic fuel leak. Starting at the base of the egress system at Launch Complex 39A, volunteer ground crews are evacuating the pad perimeter using three Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles. Three helicopters, emergency services, and the triage team are meeting the evacuated crews at triage site 8, between Launch Pads 39A and B.

As part of this exercise, evacuated personnel are undergoing a toxic vapor check. Kennedy Fire/Rescue teams are treating the crews as if contamination were detected and are performing decontamination measures. Following the medical evaluations, the simulated patients are being stabilized and prepared for transport. Selected patients are being evacuated to several area hospitals in order to validate all emergency procedures.

This simulation is a recent example of how safety is being built into systems, processes and procedures. These simulations are designed to exercise various components of emergency procedures, as well as triage and medevac response during the unlikely event of an emergency during launch operations. It is standard practice to conduct these exercises, and was regularly done during the Space Shuttle Program.

Commercial crew astronauts are rehearsing their movements in space for when they launch on Boeing and SpaceX missions to the International Space Station. Astronauts Suni Williams (above) and Mike Hopkins (below left) recently practiced spacewalking in the Virtual Reality Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The training is designed to be as realistic as possible, with real time graphics and motion simulators to replicate the space environment.

NASA uses virtual reality for spacewalk training. The astronauts see a virtual representation of the space station through their goggles and are able to practice moving around on its exterior, without the drag that they would experience from the water in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, NASA’s enormous swimming pool where astronauts practice spacewalking underwater. They can practice maneuvering safely back to the space station as well as plotting paths from worksite to worksite.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is working with Boeing and SpaceX to return human spaceflight launches to the United States in 2019. Williams is assigned to Boeing’s first operational mission after the company’s test flight with crew. Hopkins is assigned to SpaceX’s first operational mission after the company’s test flight with crew.

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Commercial Crew Basics

NASA's Commercial Crew Program has worked with several American aerospace industry companies to facilitate the development of U.S. human spaceflight systems since 2010. The goal is to have safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and foster commercial access to other potential low-Earth orbit destinations.

NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX in September 2014 to transport crew to the International Space Station from the United States. These integrated spacecraft, rockets and associated systems will carry up to four astronauts on NASA missions, maintaining a space station crew of seven to maximize time dedicated to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory.